With cyberattacks costing companies billions of dollars, officials are thinking about more aggressive methods, including "hacking back" into an adversary's system to find out what they might be looking for or shutting down an attacker's computer system altogether. Hacking back is illegal and could be considered an act of war, but in 2018, the US failed to sign an agreement rejecting hacking back as a cybersecurity option, despite the potential problems the move could cause.

Related Summaries

With cyberattacks evolving into more sophisticated ventures, businesses need to adapt to new ways that adversaries are infiltrating computer systems, says Josh Zelonis, senior analyst at Forrester. A form of ransomware called cryptojacking, attacks on internet of things devices, geopolitical risks spun from new regulations, cross-site scripting and mobile malware are all poised to become serious threats this year.

Quantum Base and Lancaster University have developed a practical quantum random number generator, which they say could make cyberattacks impossible. The device, which can be embedded in electronic devices, provides quantum security for authentication.

Industrial hacking group Xenotime is setting its sights beyond attacks on the Middle East and potentially preparing to launch global cyberattacks, warns Dragos. The group is behind the Trisis malware, the company wrote in a blog post.

Artificial intelligence developers use deep learning to create devices that think like humans but process data at much faster speeds. This could be a potential solution against cyberattacks and could identify and remove the threats as they are created, Mitchelle Dover writes.

The recent distributed-denial-of-service attack on Dyn, which took out major web services, could have been far worse if multiple servers had been targeted at once, writes Chip Block of Evolver. These aggregated losses are the new threat faced by businesses, and quantifying risks could be the key to providing greater protection.